GEORGE ONSLOW (1784-1853): String Quartets No. 28 in E Flat, Op. 54, No. 29 in D Minor, Op. 55 and No. 30 in C Minor, Op. 56.

Description: These works all come from around 1830, after Onslow, having heard Beethoven's late quartets for the first time, took a stunned break to revise his thoughts about his music. A dialogue with late Beethoven is the subtext in these works - hear the still, slow introduction to No. 28's first movement or the same work's second movement Preghiera and it will be obvious, or the way in which he had absorbed Beethoven's scherzos - but what's important is Onslow's own late style which resulted: an intense expressiveness, the fragmentation of themes, metrical innovations and vivid harmonic progressions. But none of this keeps him from surprising us with a cello-dominated No. 30 or a violin concerto-like finale in No. 29. Quatuor Diotima.